Story from Bear Country

You will know
when you walk
in bear country.
By the silence
flowing swiftly between juniper trees
by the sundown colors of sandrock
all around you.

You may smell damp earth
scratched away
from yucca roots.
You may hear snorts and growls
slow and massive sounds
from caves
in the cliffs high above you.

It is difficult to explain
how they call you.
All but a few who went to them
left behind families
        grandparents
        and sons
        a good life.

The problem is
you will never want to return.
Their beauty will overcome your memory
like winter sun
melting ice shadows from snow.
And you will remain with them
locked forever inside yourself
        your eyes will see you
        dark shaggy thick.

We can send bear priests
loping after you
their medicine bags
bouncing against their chests.
Naked legs painted black
bear claw necklaces
rattling against
their capse of blue spruce.

They will follow your trail
into the narrow canyon
through the blue-gray mountain sage
to the clearing
where you stopped to look back
and saw only bear tracks
behind you.

When they call
faint memories
will writhe around your heart
and startle you with their distance.
But the others will listen
because bear priests sing
beautiful songs.
They must
if they are ever to call you back.

They will try to bring you
step by step
back to the place you stopped
and found only bear prints in the sand
where your feet had been.

Whose voice is this?
You may wonder
hearing this story when
after all
you are alone
hiking in these canyons and hills
while your wife and sons are waiting
back at the car for you.

But you have been listening to me
for some time now
from the very beginning in fact
and you are alone in this canyon of stillness
not even cedar birds flutter.
See, the sun is going down now
the sandrock is washed in its colors.

Don’t be afraid
        we love you
        we’ve been calling you
all this time.
Go ahead
turn around
see the shape
of your footprints
in the sand.